should churches pay sunday musicians?

Any conversation involving the intersection of church and money is bound to raise hackles.  The discussion around paying church musicians for their work on Sunday mornings is no exception.

There are basically two positions:

1. Musicians should use their God-given talents to praise and honor God, and any expectation of payment for using those talents in a Sunday morning context is, at best, misguided.
2. Churches should honor musicians, who have not only prepared for a specific service but have spent years, even decades, in becoming better musicians, by offering them stipends.

My experience in this is all over the board.  I doubt the churches that I grew up in ever paid our musicians, and one congregation had two pianists with doctorates in piano.  In another congregation, the musicians were primarily members of the pastor's family.  However, since about college or so, I have been more and more in contexts, including my current parish, where musicians are regularly paid.  I have worked with talented church musicians who refused to be paid, and with talented church musicians who demanded to be paid.

To be honest, my question is not really about whether or not we should pay musicians.  I'm in favor of it and hope that wherever I'm serving can offer stipends to musicians.  But I'd like to think about this question from another perspective:

Our parish has regular Christian Formation classes during the school year, at 9:30 AM, and the classes go from 45-50 minutes.  As the pastor, I'm usually the one teaching these classes, but when others with teaching gifts are able and willing, I am happy to hand over the lectern.  Recently, I approached one member of our church family and asked him if he could teach a series of his choice for the class.  He prayerfully agreed to do so, selected a book for everyone to read, and led a number of excellent classes.

So the question is: why didn't we pay him?  Why didn't we even offer to pay him?  This man is top shelf, a retired university professor who spends his summers teaching theological German at one of the most outstanding graduate schools of theology in North America.  In addition to his deep faith and genuine Christian love, he is a preeminently gifted teacher with a Ph.D. and all the academic accolades you would want.  But if I had asked the treasurer to pay him for teaching, he most assuredly would have laughed at me.

We pay musicians: why don't we pay educators?  They put in serious prep time during the week getting ready for Sunday.  They have years, decades of experience, training, and education.  What's the difference between a church musician and a church educator that compels us to pay one and not even consider paying the other?

three reasons our family goes to church while on vacation

1) The same reason we go to church on any other Sunday: to worship and honor the God who created us and loved us so much he gave his only Son.

For our family, the strongest reason to go to church at any time is wrapped up in the same reason we are Anglicans in the Catholic tradition: to receive the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.  If you truly believe that Jesus instituted Holy Communion for his Church, as a means of transforming grace, why would you not want to receive as often as possible?

But let's say you're in the broader Protestant/Evangelical tradition, where "church" means to come together to sing a few songs and hear the preacher preach.  Do you not do so because you believe that, in a special way, God is there?  Why would that change because you don’t have to clock in the next day?  If worship is just one duty among others, such as work and dental appointments, maybe your worship needs some more, uh, worship.

2) We're better than you.

In fact, just the opposite is true.  We are keenly aware of our faults and failures, our sins and offenses.  We need more and more of God in order to be made more and more like him, and we have a long way to go.  So any chance we get to get molded, off we go!

3) Our parents took us when we were growing up.

Both Rebecca and I grew up in Evangelical households that took church seriously.  If we were on vacation, we picked a church and there we went.  On a purely pragmatic level, it's usually a good experience for kids to see how other Christians worship God.  But more importantly, we learned growing up that a sine qua non of following Jesus is going to church.

Your turn: what are some other reasons you attend church while on vacation?

stylish adult baptism

In my social media networks, a video is flying around called, “Big Rich Texas Tip: Stylish Adult Baptism.”  The scorn being heaped on this clip is well deserved.  Less than two minutes long, the clip offends the rational mind from start to finish, with some especially cringe-worthy moments.  My personal favorites include commentary that one option for baptism could be a church (gasp!) because “sometimes that’s more traditional,” naming the woman to be baptized “the baptee” (I guess neosacraments call for neologisms), and a warning against being “boobalicious” in one’s clothing choices when attending said stylish baptism.  I probably don’t need to explain “boobalicious.”  What’s not in the clip?  Any mention of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, an ordained minister, or even Christianity itself.  The church may not be as stylish as the pool at your Texas ranch; apparently the “style” thing also excludes the very unstylish Faith once delivered to the saints.

Leslie, with her “stylish baptism,” is an easy target.  Her simplistic and ephemeral take on what the Church holds as a soul-changing moment is world-class satire without even trying.  Unfortunately, Leslie is only taking her cues from the Church. 

Weddings are the one of the worst areas where we as the Church have completely caved to the “stylish” culture, inviting all sorts of symbolism and ritual that have nothing of the depth of the ancient faith.  Unity candles, sand pouring, flower petals in the aisle – we ministers allow these things all the time.  Yet these are not Christian symbols, speaking to vows made before God.  If I have to hear one more preacher proclaim that a wedding is about the bride, or the bride and groom, I’m going to hurl down from the bell tower my ESV hardback with Apocrypha.  A “church wedding” is where a man and a woman pledge before God to commit to one another until death – a wedding is ultimately about a commitment to God.  Yes, let’s make it beautiful; yes, let’s make it enjoyable. But let’s make it about God, from start to finish, a model for the married life to come.

Funerals are a close second.  Rambling eulogies and “personal touches” of the deceased move our minds and hearts away from the purpose of a funeral: to commit our loved one to God.  Yes, let’s take time to remember them fondly; yes, let’s make it personal.  I do most funerals in segments.  I lead the funeral service itself, and only after I have completed the liturgy and could actually go home do I turn it over to the family for eulogies and the like.  A funeral, like a wedding, is not ultimately about us, about the one whose obituary is handed out.  A funeral is about God, about reflecting on the victory over death won by Jesus in the Cross and Resurrection, and a sober opportunity for all involved to consider our own mortality.

So let’s have our fun with Leslie and her stylish baptism, but the Church and our own diminishing of the sacraments are the reasons such a video clip exists.  May God, and God alone, be glorified in our weddings, our funerals, and even our stylish baptisms!

samuel's baptism

July 11 is the feast day of St Benedict, but to me it will always be the day in 2011 that I baptized my son Samuel.  Born 3 1/2 months early, at 1 lb 13 oz, Samuel faced several surgeries and an uphill battle for life.  He recently turned one, and his life and continued development proclaim a testimony of God's grace.  As we kept folks updated on his progress through Facebook and other means, I wrote several essays on our experience.  Here, slightly edited, is the essay on Samuel's baptism into the Body of Christ.

Yesterday, I performed a baptism.  Since I'm an Anglican priest, that’s not terribly unusual (though to be honest, I don’t do it enough).  It was the setting and the baptismal candidate that were different.  Rather than a Sunday morning coordinated with fellow believers, family and friends, it was a Monday afternoon, a decision made two hours previously.  Rather than a cooing (or howling!) baby presented in a long, white, baptismal gown, this infant moved feebly in a plastic-encased neonatal intensive care bed, wearing a tiny diaper, surrounded with lines and hoses.  And it was my son.

I don’t baptize my children.  I ask others to baptize my children.  I wasn’t “legal” for Elijah and Jonah.  I could have baptized Lily, but asked my friend and mentor Fr. Briane Turley to do it while I served as his assistant at Church of the Holy Spirit in Tulsa.  I wasn’t going to baptize this baby, either; I had planned to ask our bishop, The Rt. Rev. Alberto Morales, to do it on or around All Saints Day if Samuel had been born at his October due date.  I don’t baptize my children.  I made this decision before I was ordained, that my first role in the life of my children is as “Dad.”  When they are baptized, I prefer my main role to be that of presenting them to Jesus as the spiritual leader not of my congregation but of my family, making the vows that I will indeed bring them up in the faith, that I will teach them God’s Holy Word, that I will bring them to God’s Holy Table.  If in the future my children marry, I would prefer to be in the “Dad” seat in the front pew rather than standing as the minister.  It’s just my preference—I don’t argue that anyone else should take such an approach.  It's my way of saying that with my children, I am “Dad” first and “Father” second.

If you look closely on Samuel's head,
you can see a bead of the baptismal water

Samuel broke all the rules.  When we learned yesterday the serious potential complications involved with Samuel’s procedure, I asked the doctor if I should go ahead and baptize him.  She replied that she frequently recommends it for children born this premature, and suggested I talk to the nurse to arrange for the materials.  A good Catholic hospital always keeps baptismal items close at hand!  The nurses brought us a small bottle of sterile water and a shell (these items have now taken their place among our most prized possessions), and I indulged in the privilege of baptizing my fourth child.  In the room with me and Rebecca were Elijah, Jonah and Lily, Joyce (Rebecca’s mom), Margaret (WIU student who lives in Peoria and has been helping so much with our children—who love her!) and Kathy, one of the nurses.  Margaret and Kathy were taking pictures.  Jonah and Lily stood with Rebecca and Joyce, and Elijah helped me (“Is this acolyting just like I do at church, Dad?”  “Exactly, son.”).  Like an obedient priest, I had a stole with me, even in NICU with my son—thanks be to God!  My Bible and small BCP were in my bag.  I abbreviated the baptismal liturgy, sticking with the blessing of the water, the baptism itself, the prayer of thanksgiving, and the mark of the Cross on his head (alas, no chrism).  My hand was shaking as I dripped water from the tiny shell onto Samuel’s head; likewise as I made the sign of the Cross on the crown of his forehead, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.”  Such a tiny head, such a fragile head, receiving the water of Baptism and the mark of the Cross: signs of life and death in a bed where the struggle between the two plays out before our very eyes.

While Samuel’s baptism was certainly administered under emergency circumstances, the Lord has been gracious to him and to us and the days continue.  Today we sit in the room with a new member of the family of God, receiving the blessings of Fernando Ortega’s brand-new album, which includes a number of settings of music for the Eucharist.  Music that drives us to the heart of the life of faith: God giving of himself in Bread and Wine.  Additionally, I just realized today that Samuel’s baptismal day was the feast day of St Benedict.  I think that our Benedictine bishop would approve! 

So I finally baptized one of my children.  He just better not ask me to officiate at his wedding: rules are rules, son.

st thomas aquinas on marital sex

"There are some who say that intercourse between married persons is not devoid of sin. But this is heretical, for the Apostle says: 'Let marriage be honorable in all and the bed undefiled' [Hb 13:4]. Not only is it devoid of sin, but for those in the state of grace it is meritorious for eternal life.

Sometimes, however, it may be a venial sin, sometimes a mortal sin. When it is had with the intention of bringing forth offspring, it is an act of virtue. When it is had with the intent of rendering mutual comfort, it is an act of justice. When it is a cause of exciting lust, although within the limits of marriage, it is a venial sin; and when it goes beyond these limits, so as to intend intercourse with another if possible, it would be a mortal sin."

(From his Explanation of the Ten Commandments)

receiving without deserving

I'm a religion junkie. It probably helps that I'm a member of the clergy, but I'm fascinated with religion, with churches, with how humankind considers its relationship to a higher power.  One way I satisfy this addiction is by reading church newsletters from all around the country, so easy to do now that everyone posts them online.

One church newsletter included this quote: “It is better to deserve without receiving than receive without deserving.”

Sad to say, this quote mirrors the American ideals of working hard to deserve the “good life” rather than the Christian reality of grace that a church ought to promote. Grace teaches that Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross serves as the ultimate door to “receiving without deserving.”

It's vital for American Christians that the Christian part of our existence direct and form the American part, and not the other way around.  One important way to underline this concept is to remember that nothing that we do makes us worthy to receive God’s grace.

To belittle "receiving without deserving" reflects not a life of discipleship to Jesus of Nazareth, but secular humanism. It sounds nice; it sounds like a humble path. Yet at its root, it belittles a central tenet of the Christian Faith. We receive without deserving when, by faith, we trust Christ’s death for our sins.

The quote isn't Christian at all.  In fact, they're the words of Robert G. Ingersoll, a celebrated 19th century agnostic (and one-time Illinois Attorney General) who ridiculed Christian beliefs and those who held them. Such a one could not comprehend the meaning of grace.

Christians talk about grace, but do we understand it?  It's a gift that we cannot earn, regardless of piety or sacrifice.  It is best to receive without deserving, when we receive from Jesus Christ.

kim kardashian and the death of marriage

Much hay is being made over the apparent end of the 72-day marriage of reality star Kim Kardashian to NBA journeyman Kris Humphries.  Their engagement was the peak of the season finale of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," while her filing for divorce is the latest and greatest in Hollywood gossip.

One meme circulating the social networks is that this abrupt divorce somehow demonstrates that the "sanctity of marriage" or the "institution of marriage" is bankrupt.  But it doesn't do that at all.  Sure, it shows us that Hollywood romance is many times a joke, but that's not a black eye for traditional marriage.  It's just another sign that Hollywood is full of self-absorbed fools.

Traditional marriage is done within the context of a pastoral and congregational relationship.  When clergy require this before performing a wedding, we do it because we want the marriage to succeed.  Any couple that asks me to marry them will go through several sessions of premarital counseling, as well as an in-depth look at the marriage service.  A special focus is given to the traditional vows, why we still use them, and what they mean.  Oh, and you need to be part of this church as well, because the wedding is just the beginning, and we want to be a community that encourages and supports you in your marriage.

Marriages like that of Kim Kardashian's often fail because, as the saying goes, "after every wedding comes a marriage."  Cliché, yes, but clichés are clichés because they're right!  Traditional marriage is full of daily challenges and rewards.  Though everyone wants the glamour of the wedding and the rewards of wedded life, not nearly enough commit to the daily toil it takes to make marriage work.  A broken Hollywood marriage that was seemingly on shaky ground from the beginning doesn't make traditional marriage a failed institution, anymore than a hastily-prepared McDonald's Quarter Pounder slights the fine dining tradition of Ruth's Chris Steak House.

the scandal of the worship leader

During my summer travels I love visiting different churches.  This year I noticed something at an AMiA (Anglican Mission in the Americas) congregation that has become a bothersome trend: calling the music leader the “worship leader.”

What is worship?  Is worship singing songs and lifting our hands in the air?  Come to St George’s on a Sunday and you will sometimes see me worshiping in this manner.  My concern is not a more modern/charismatic approach to worship music, but our understanding of worship itself.  What is worship?  Is worship, as many churches seem to think, only the music?  “After the worship team, our teaching pastor will share a message.”  If worship is more than just music, why do we call those who lead music the “worship leaders?”

What does the Bible say about worship?

Worship in the Old Testament is probably best seen through the lens of the Law, in which Yahweh tells Israel, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  You shall not bow down to them or serve them…” (from Exodus 20, ESV).  The foundational Old Testament understanding of worship (Hebrew shachah) is to subject oneself to another, to bow down before another.

Old Testament worship is frequently linked with sacrifice.  In Genesis 22, Abraham and Isaac head to Moriah to offer a burnt sacrifice to God.  When they see the place where they will perform the sacrifice, Abraham tells their servant, “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”  Sacrifice was an act of contrition, a way of saying, “God, I acknowledge that your ways are right, and I have acted contrary to your ways.  I am sorry that I have done so.”

The New Testament word for worship, proskuneo, has a similar meaning, a focus on reverence and demonstrating respect by physical acts such as bowing or kissing the hand.  In Acts 10, Cornelius falls at the feet of Peter in worship.  Peter, of course, stands him up and tells him not to do so, since he himself is a man just like Cornelius.  But note the posture of Cornelius’ worship: prostrating himself at Peter’s feet, pronouncing himself subject to Peter.  The full-orbed, Biblical picture of worship, from Old and New Testaments, is that of subjecting ourselves to God, paying him tribute and respect.

What about worship and music?

So, isn’t that what we’re doing with our music?  Don’t we sing in praise of the Triune Creator, giving him the honor due God?  Music is an amazing way of connecting on many emotional levels to God in praise of him.  It is a gift from God that should be used to give praise and thanks back to him, and it should lift our souls to new levels.  The problem is that limiting worship to music truncates our worship.  Remember again the Biblical picture of worship: respectful subjection to the God who is Holy Love.  If the only time we recognize worship is in conjunction with music, it leaves the real possibility that whole areas of our lives are being left out of being subjected to God.

What if we saw every aspect of our corporate worship truly as worship?  Do we worship the Lord when his Word is read?  That is, do we subject ourselves to the Truth of Scripture and to the one who is the Truth when we hear his will for us and our lives?  Do we worship the Lord when the sermon is preached?  That is, do we respond to the exhortations given to follow Jesus more closely?  Do we worship the Lord in prayer?  That is, do we bow before him, saying, “Not my will but yours be done.”  Do we worship the Lord when the offering plates come down the pew?  That is, do we give honor and thanks to God for all he has given us?  Do we worship the Lord at the Holy Eucharist?  That is, do we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and seek to use the grace imparted to become more like Jesus?

Worship is vital to the life of the believer, yet if we define worship only in relation to music, we potentially lose sight of just how vital it is that every aspect of life is subject to God.  When we call the music leader, the “worship leader,” we fall prey to a narrow, one-sided view of worship, rather than the full, robust picture of worship in Holy Scripture. 

And the Worship Leader is…

Just as the priest is the leader of worship in the Old Testament, so a priest is our worship leader today.  But of course this is not just any priest; it is Jesus, the Great High Priest!  The Book of Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus our high priest is the one who leads our worship, again, in the context of sacrifice (see especially Hebrews 10).   Jesus’ worship, Jesus’ submission to the Father, is the perfect submission to the Father.  Jesus leads our worship.

OK, OK, Jesus leads the worship, but it’s kinda hard to see him on a Sunday morning!  Who is the visible worship leader in your church on Sunday morning?  In the sacramental context the congregational worship leader is not a musician but the one who represents the Great High Priest: the priest.  The priest leads the congregation in its reverential honor of the Holy God.  The priest leads the congregation in submitting to Scripture, in admitting and repenting for falling short of God’s commands, and in feeding on the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ offered once for all.

Perhaps non-sacramental congregations are a bit different but similar (this isn’t my area of specialty, as you will see).  While the Great Shepherd is the worship leader of the universal Church, in an individual congregation, the under-shepherd, the pastor, is the worship leader.  There may be many under-shepherds, depending on the way the church is set up, each of whom could be considered a worship leader.

To name as “worship leader” the music leader reduces our view of giving honor and glory to God to a musical context only.  The Bible makes clear that our worship of the Creator must be our whole being subject to him.  Only in intentionally seeing Jesus as our Great High Priest, and in rightly naming his representative, the priest/pastor, as worship leader, may we recover a full, Scriptural meaning of worship and its place in the church—not as one element of our service, but as the theme which runs throughout.

quincy ix ballot results

Ballot 1--need 22 clergy and 33 lay to elect.
Abbot Morales: 18 clergy, 48 lay
Fr den Blaauwen: 10 clergy, 9 lay
Fr Brooks: 13 clergy, 10 lay

Ballot #2 taken 1:20pm. We have an election--thanks be to God!
Morales: 23 clergy, 51 lay
den Blaauwen: 10 clergy, 8 lay
Brooks: 8 clergy, 8 lay

election results for the ninth bishop of the diocese of quincy

I'm not much of a live-blogger, but I will try to post some results here on Saturday for our bishop election.  All I have is my iPhone with no blogger apps; maybe I'll try to find one some I'm not having to use the web.  Registration is at 9am, followed by Holy Eucharist at 10am, then we are underway.

Synod is convened 11:15am. Fr. John Spencer is leading, as head of Standing Committee. 40 of 45 clergy present, 65 of 69 delegates present, we have a quorum.

Synod rules allow speeches in favor of candidates. Fr Frank Dunaway is speaking for Abbot Morales. Mr LeRoy Groff with seconding speech.

Kim Benson is speaking on behalf of Fr Ed den Blaauwen. Fr Ed Guill of Nashville now speaking.

Fr Toby Karlowicz speaking on behalf of Fr Michael Brooks. Now Mary Kay Gamage is speaking.

No nominations from the floor--Nominations closed for the first ballot. Now additional speakers are rising in favor of various candidates.

First ballot taken at 1pm.

prayer for the search of the 9th bishop of quincy

"Most Heavenly Father, Shepherd of Souls, Leader and Ruler of all; with humble hearts we ask this day that You may stir within the hearts of your faithful people the grace to discern your will in the election of him who is to become the 9th Bishop of the Diocese of Quincy. May Your Holy Spirit direct us, and may your wisdom guide us; may the life and mission of this Diocese be continually upheld by the one who is to become your servant bishop; through Christ, our great High Priest, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen."

bring them in: three models for evangelism through worship

by Robert E. Webber
(from here)

There is a story in the Russian Primary Chronicle that tells how Christianity came to Russia. According to this true story Vladimir, Prince of Kiev, sent several of his followers in search of "true religion." First they went to the Muslim Bulgars of the Volga but returned with the report that they found "no joy" but only "a mournfulness and a great smell." Next they went to Germany and Rome, where they found the worship more satisfactory but still lacking in power. Finally they made a trip to Constantinople, where they visited the Church of the Holy Wisdom, and here they found what they were looking for. They went home and reported to Vladimir,

We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendor or beauty anywhere upon earth. We cannot describe it to you: only this we know, that God dwells there among men, and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places. For we cannot forget that beauty. (Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, p. 269) [pg 264 in the "New Edition"].

Evangelism Through Worship
What these seekers experienced in Constantinople was evangelism through worship. In other words, the worship service they took part in allowed them to truly encounter, experience, and believe in God.

Many of us expect such evangelism to occur through our worship services. But does it? Do visitors to our worship services "know that God dwells there among" us? As we prepare for worship, we should keep before us four characteristics of worship that will evangelize those who gather with us.

First, we should recognize that worship itself arises out of the gospel. Worship is not primarily a classroom in which the Scripture is taught, an evangelistic service that preaches for decision, or a psychiatric couch that reaches to the needy. While true worship may accomplish all of this, real, authentic biblical worship is at its fundamental core a celebration of the living, dying, and rising of Christ in recognition that through this historical action the powers of evil have been dethroned and will ultimately be destroyed.

Second, we should understand that worship that would evangelize must grow out of community. The public celebration of the Christ event was never meant to be individualistic. God, through Christ, brought into being an ekklesia, a fellowship of people who are the "people of the event." As people of the event, we now share a common experience that results in a new fabric of social relations. We embody the reality of the new creation as we live our lives out in authentic relationships of love, compassion, friendship, giving, and the like. Such a community has the magnetic power to draw people into faith in a subliminal way.

Third, we should know worship that evangelizes needs to be aware that evangelism is a process. Instant conversions do occur. But more often, conversion and subsequent growth in Christ is a journey that includes various stages of development and growth. Worship that truly celebrates God's saving deed in Jesus Christ in authentic community provides both the impetus and context in which the whole community is continually evangelized.

Finally, we should understand that worship that brings people to Jesus recognizes the complexity of evangelism. Because the gospel speaks to us as whole people, evangelism touches different aspects of the person. Ultimately, evangelism has to do with faith in Jesus as Lord, but people may need to come to that faith in different ways. Some may need their morals or values evangelized; others may need to experience the church as a Christian community; still others may need to encounter the reality of God. All these needs are addressed in a worship that celebrates the Christ event and applies the meaning of that event to the lives of the people.

Fortunately for those of us who wish to evangelize through worship, there are models worth examining. I will refer to three, and develop the third one in particular.

Manifest Presence Evangelism
Manifest Presence, our first model, may be described as the experience of being grasped by the overpowering presence of God in worship. Karen Howe writes of her experience of manifest presence in an Episcopal church:

I became a Christian sitting in a pew, experiencing worship. It wasn't the sermon that did it. No one presented me with the plan of salvation or led me in a prayer of commitment (though that did come later). I simply basked in the presence of God as the worship service progressed around me, and when I left the church, I knew that God had entered my life. He was alive. I had encountered him. That day I was born again in my spirit.

Being "grasped by God" in worship may occur in many different ways. It may "happen" through the hospitality of the community, through the proclamation of the Word, through singing (God inhabiting the praises of the people), or through the presence of Christ in the bread and wine.

Seeker-Service Evangelism
A second model of evangelism through worship (or a kind of worship) is the seeker service (see "The Seeker Service," p. 7). This approach, pioneered by Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois (the second largest church in the US), separates the seeker service (designed for non-Christians) from believers' worship (designed for Christians). The seeker service is held on Saturday night and Sunday morning, while believers' worship takes place midweek.

The seeker service fits into an overall sevenfold strategy of mission at Willow Creek Church. In summary, the steps are as follows:
Every member should
1. take part in evangelism.
2. be able to give a verbal witness.
3. bring the person he/she is witnessing to to the seeker service.
4. bring converts (after their conversion and baptism) to believers' worship.
Converts will then
5. attend a small group in which they can be discipled.
6. discover their personal gifts and put them to work in the church.
7. learn stewardship of money and life.

The seeker service is designed as a nonthreatening service for secular people who, because a member of the church has entered into relationship with them, wish to be exposed more fully to the faith. It is not like a church-service, although it contains elements of Christian worship.

The Willow Creek Church auditorium, where seeker services are held, is more like a theater than a church. It contains no Christian symbols, and provides a neutral context in which an unchurched person can feel comfortable and unassailed. Also, both the music and the message at seeker services are subtle and deal generally rather than specifically with spiritual themes.

In a seeker service I attended recently, for example, the theme was parenting: How do you raise children in a world full of turmoil and temptation? One of four points was, "Don't neglect the spiritual side of the child," but nothing specific was said about Jesus Christ. Witnessing about Christ and his work is rather the responsibility of the friend who brought the "seeker."

Liturgical Evangelism
The third model of evangelism through worship is a third-century model that has been resurrected by the Roman Catholic Church. Among Catholics it is called the Rites for the Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). I like to call it Liturgical Evangelism.

This kind of evangelism may be defined as follows: Liturgical evangelism calls a person into Christ and the church through a conversion regulated and ordered by worship. Services that span the church year order the inner experience of repentance from sin, faith in Christ, conversion of life, and entrance into the Christian community.

In the third-century church, evangelism was based on seven progressive steps that took place over a period of three years:
1. Inquiry
2. The Rite of Welcome
3, The Catechumenate
4. The Rite of Election
5. The Period of Purification and Enlightenment
6. The Rite of Initiation
7. Mystogogue

Note that of the seven steps, four are periods or times for growth and development (Inquiry, the Catechumenate, The Period of Purification and Enlightenment, Mystogogue) while three are rites of passage (the Rite of Welcome, the Rite of Election, the Rite of Initiation). Each of these steps can be tied to a place in the church year in a very meaningful wayóby Protestants as well as Catholics.

Inquiry
The point of beginning is Pentecost Sunday. On that day you may celebrate a special commissioning service for those in your community of faith who are called to the work of evangelism. These persons will now seek to fulfill their calling in a special way in the months of the season after Pentecost. They will invite friends and neighbors to church and will engage with them and possibly other members of the church or elders in discussions about the gospel and its meaning for their lives. During these months, some of these people will consider a deeper commitment. We can speak of them as "converting persons."

The Rite of Welcome
The next step, the first passage rite, is the rite of welcome, a ritual that is celebrated today on the first Sunday of Advent. As part of this rite in the early church, the converting person renounced false gods, received the sign of the cross on the forehead, and was received into the church as a catechumen. Similar symbols may be used today. Each church may develop symbols that express a renunciation of the old way of life and the embracing of the new life in Christ.

The Catechumenate
The catechumenate is the longest stage. In the early church it spanned two or three years, depending on how certain the church leaders were of the spiritual formation of the converting person. During this stage the converting person is instructed in the Scripture, in prayer, and in holy living. Today this period of learning stretches from the first Sunday of Advent through the Epiphany season. Some churches extend it for another full year, but that is not typical.

The Rite of Election
Once the instruction of the catechetical period is complete, the converting persons gather in public worship for the second passage rite, the rite of election. This ritual takes place on the first Sunday of Lent. In the ancient church and again today the primary symbol of this ritual is the dramatic moment in which the converting person, in response to a question such as "Do you choose the one who has chosen you?" will step forward, say "yes," and then write his or her name in a book placed in front of the pulpit.

The Period of Purification and Englightenment
This fifth stage, which occurs during Lent, is a time for intense spiritual preparation for baptism. It is a time to wrestle with the "principalities and powers" that seek to control life. In the ancient church the converting person came to the church for daily exorcisms during this stage. Today, a church may instead lay hands on the catechumens and pray for them in the struggles they have with the powers of evil that continue to knock on their door and bring temptation into their lives. In this way catechumens may learn that the Christian life is a life of struggle, a life that demands constant attention to the ways in which the church offers God's help in times of temptation or distress.

The Rite of Initiation
The sixth state is then the act of baptism itself. In the early church and again today, converting persons are baptized on Easter Sunday morning in the context of the great Paschal vigil. As part of the early church rite, those to be baptized renounced the powers of evil, received the baptism of water in the name of the triune God, were washed with oil, exchanged the kiss of peace, and for the first time celebrated the Lord's Supper with the faithful. Today the adaptation of these rites for the converting persons places special emphasis on the completion of one phase of the journey of faith and the beginning of another.

Mystagogue
The continuation of the converting person's lifelong experience of faith is expressed in the final stage, the period of mystagogue, an old term that means "learning the mysteries." Today, as in the early church, the stage of mystagogue occurs during the fifty days of the Easter season. In the early church's mystagogue, new converts were instructed in the meaning of the Eucharist and were incorporated into the full life of the church. Today, churches use this time to discern the new convert's gifts and to enroll the fully converted person into an active membership wherein his or her gifts are used in the life of the church.

While you may not have heard of Liturgical Evangelism, let me assure you that it is a form of evangelism used quite effectively by renewing Catholic churches around the world and by an increasing number of Protestant liturgical churches (especially the Episcopal Church).

But a congregation does not have to be strictly liturgical to use this form of evangelism. Any church that celebrates the pilgrimage of the Christian year can use this form of evangelism effectively both for converting persons and for bringing new life into the present congregation. In this approach the whole church is aware of the process and can even be involved in a continual process of conversion ordered by the meaning of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost.

Three Steps to Change
These three approaches to evangelism through worship demonstrate that there is no one way to do evangelism through worship. If your congregation is not engaged in any form of evangelism through worship, I suggest you take three steps.

First, discuss these three approaches to evangelism and decide which one is most suitable for your congregation.
Second, having chosen one or the other, study it. Read books. Attend a conference. Bring someone in who can present the approach to the entire congregation.
Finally, do it. You may find yourself faltering at first, but as you continue to experiment and perhaps fail, pick yourself up and try again. The approach will take shape in your congregation and will stimulate you to be an evangelizing community of worship.

AUTHOR
Robert E. Webber
Robert Webber (rwebber@northern.seminary.edu) is Myers Professor of Ministry at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois, and president of the Institute for Worship Studies, a distance education school in Jacksonville, Florida. He is author of many books, including the Ancient-Future series (Baker), Younger Evangelicals (Baker), and editor of the eight-volume Complete Library of Christian Worship. These resources and a monthly "Ancient-Future Talk" newsletter are available at www.ancientfutureworship.com.

whatever has been rightly said by the heathen, we must appropriate to our uses

"Moreover, if those who are called philosophers, and especially the Platonists, have said aught that is true and in harmony with our faith, we are not only not to shrink from it, but to claim it for our own use from those who have unlawful possession of it.

"For, as the Egyptians had not only the idols and heavy burdens which the people of Israel hated and fled from, but also vessels and ornaments of gold and silver, and garments, which the same people when going out of Egypt appropriated to themselves, designing them for a better use, not doing this on their own authority, but by the command of God, the Egyptians themselves, in their ignorance, providing them with things which they themselves were not making a good use of; in the same way all branches of heathen learning have not only false and superstitious fancies and heavy burdens of unnecessary toil, which every one of us, when going out under the leadership of Christ from the fellowship of the heathen, ought to abhor and avoid; but they contain also liberal instruction which is better adapted to the use of the truth, and some most excellent precepts of morality; and some truths in regard even to the worship of the One God are found among them. Now these are, so to speak, their gold and silver, which they did not create themselves, but dug out of the mines of God’s providence which are everywhere scattered abroad, and are perversely and unlawfully prostituting to the worship of devils.

"These, therefore, the Christian, when he separates himself in spirit from the miserable fellowship of these men, ought to take away from them, and to devote to their proper use in preaching the gospel. Their garments, also,—that is, human institutions such as are adapted to that intercourse with men which is indispensable in this life,—we must take and turn to a Christian use."

--St Augustine, On Christian Doctrine

preaching and beer

Some church growth methods should be avoided...

"It happened to Ambrosius. He was once told by his parishioners, after they had been admonished to hear the Word and the sermon: The truth is, dear pastor, that if you were to tap a keg of beer in the church and call us to enjoy it, we would be glad to come."

--Martin Luther

truer words about evangelism were never spoken...

When I was Minister to Youth at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Lafayette, Louisiana, Bishop Robert Hargrove, at his annual visitation, was speaking to us about evangelism. "The Bible tells us that we are to be fishers of men. In the Episcopal Church, we think evangelism means hanging a sign out front that says, 'Fish Wanted.'"

c.s. lewis on devotional books and doctrinal books

"For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that 'nothing happens' when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand."

From his Introduction to On the Incarnation

vatican releases "anglicanorum coetibus"

A few weeks ago, the news came out that Pope Benedict XVI would be releasing an "Apostolic Constitution" (the highest level of declaration from the Holy Father) concerning the acceptance of Anglican bodies into full communion with Rome. The actual document is now available at the Vatican website.

Read the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus here.

As Bishop Iker stated last weekend at Diocesan Convention, we Anglicans who are truly concerned with the unity of Christ's Church must seek reconciliation with both Rome and the Orthodox tradition. From the bishop's speech:

'[I]f we are to work and pray for the unity of Christ’s Church throughout the world, it must involve all three bodies – Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholics. These are the three great churches of the catholic tradition, East and West, who though divided for centuries, have maintained the historic faith and order of the Church as expressed in the Holy Scriptures, the apostolic succession of ordained ministry, the sacraments and the creeds. When the New Testament speaks of the need for unity and truth among believers, it is for all members of the Body of Christ. When Jesus prays for the unity of his disciples, it is “that they all may be one.”'

the unchurched prefer cathedrals to modern buildings

"People who don’t go to church may be turned off by a recent trend toward more utilitarian church buildings. By a nearly 2-to-1 ratio over any other option, unchurched Americans prefer churches that look more like a medieval cathedral than what most think of as a more contemporary church building."

This is from a study by Lifeway, the Christian Education folks for the Southern Baptist Convention. My favorite part of the article is a quote from church planting expert Ed Stetzer: "Quite honestly, this research surprised us. We expected they’d choose the more contemporary options, but they were clearly more drawn to the aesthetics of the Gothic building than the run-of-the-mill, modern church building."

I hope and pray that the modern church building craze will fade away. Many with far more aesthetic sense than I have noted that the more modern a building's architecture, the more quickly it become out-of-date. Classical architecture for churches is always timely, and I believe does a better job of pointing us to God rather than drawing attention to itself (as the trendy always does). It is indeed telling that the unchurched, yearning for God, or at least for something bigger than themselves, find more fulfillment in spires than in the latest architectural fashions.

Read the whole article here.

Thanks to my friend Andy Stoddard (twitter @atstod) for pointing me to this study

st augustine on the *task* of being a bishop

"In the life of action...what is to be treasured is not a place of honor or power in this life, since 'everything under the sun is vanity' but the task itself is to be achieved by means of that place of honor and that power--if that achievement is right and helpful, that is, if it serves to promote the well-being of the common people...

That is why the Apostle says: 'Anyone who aspires to the episcopate aspires to an honorable "task."' He wanted to explain what episcopate means: it is the name of a task, not an honor...Bishops who have their heart set on a position of eminence rather than an opportunity for service should realize they are no bishops."

Amen, St Augustine--and may I suggest that the principle holds for all in Christian leadership. The moment we forget that our calling to ministry is first and foremost about the task of ministering, rather than the honor of being a minister, we are not ministers.

Preaching to myself this morning...

miroslav volf on forgiveness

Hillcrest Medical Center holds an annual clergy seminar, and this year they brought in a big gun: Miroslav Volf, a theology professor at Yale. The topic was "Forgiveness." A few of my notes from the day:

+ Our culture has three modes of existence: Taking, Trading and Giving. These correlate to Revenge, Retributive Justice and Forgiveness.

+ Our culture has been stripped of grace--we don't know how to give or forgive well -- forgiving is an art. Forgiveness is a power that one has over another, and it is necessary to set that power aside in true forgiveness. When we forgive, are we actually using it as a tool to blame and condemn the offender, to hold the offense over him or her?

+ Two essential elements of forgiveness: 1) name the wrongdoing and condemn it; and 2) don't count the wrongdoing against the offender -- separate the person from the act.

+ At two different points during the seminar he said, "A consistent feature of sin is that it doesn't want to be sin." True on many levels--I take it primarily in the sense that sin wants to be accepted as it is, as holy. But I think there is almost a wistfulness to sin: while on one level it wants to be accepted as it is, on another level it wishes to be undone, cleansed and remade into holiness.